The first joint radio-television broadcast of a U.S. Presidential debate was held on September 26. It was between Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon.

1961

The U.S. sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba was attempted without success.

Nikita Khrushchev, the Prime Minister of the Soviet Union, ordered the creation of the Berlin Wall in June to divide Soviet-controlled East Berlin from West Berlin, which was part of the free and democratic West Germany.

1963

The Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed on August 6 by the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union.

President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas Texas.

Grolier Online has created this resource from its collection of print articles in Encyclopedia Americana. Contains a full biography, written by Frank B. Freidel, Jr. of Harvard University, along with suggestions for further reading.

From the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, in addition to information on the Presidents themselves, they have first lady and cabinet member biographies, listings of presidential staff and advisers, and timelines detailing significant events in the lives of each administration.

Created by Ralph Schuster, this is one of many conspiracy sites on the Internet on the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In addition to the author's personal opinions, there is other useful information here -- a film and video library, an account of the events of November 22, 1963, the text of the Warren Report, and links to other JFK assassination sites.

Located on the Sixth Floor of the former Texas School Book Depository in Dallas, Texas, this site is believed to be the location where Kennedy's assassin fired upon the presidential motorcade. Now a museum dedicated to the life of Kennedy. Tourist information is available.

Points of Interest:

Kennedy's speech to the students at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on October 14, 1960 was the start of the Peace Corps.

In his speech to a Joint Session of Congress on May 25, 1961, Kennedy set the goal of landing a man on the moon by 1969 for the United States's Space Program (NASA).

Kennedy gave a famous speech in West Berlin in June 1963 that emphasized the importance of the "free world" fighting the "Communist world". Two memorable phrases that he spoke in German were: "Lassísie nach Berlin kommen," or "Let them come to Berlin"; and "Ish bin ein Bearleener," or "I am a Berliner."

Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas Texas. He had spent little more than a thousand days in office before being assassinated.

In 1965, the report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (also known as the Warren Commission) found that a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, fatally shot Kennedy from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Three other government investigations were later conducted. All three agreed with the Warren Commission's conclusions that Oswald's shots did kill Kennedy. However, the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) in 1979 also concluded that another shooter fired upon Kennedy from the Dealey Plaza grassy knoll and missed. The existence of a second shooter and many other conclusions in these investigations are very controversial.